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Cleverly enjoying run of first team at Aston Villa

29 October 2014

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Manchester United midfielder Tom Cleverley, who moved to Aston Villa on a season-long loan, has been enjoying a regular spell of first-team action in the last few weeks. This coupled with support from the fans has improved his morale significantly. He has been playing much better for Villa than he did for United last season. The England international was subjected to heavy criticism from his own supporters at United, while he felt that he was vindicated for the performances of the team as a whole. He is widely expected to make the move to Villa permanent with his contract at United set to expire in the summer.
In recent weeks, though, there has been the talk of Cleverley returning back to United. The 23-year-old refused to entertain any talk about his future right now. He said that he is only focusing on his football. He was primarily used as a defensive midfielder under David Moyes last season, but Villa manager Paul Lambert has been employing him as an attacking midfielder. He has been playing much more up the field and this is also one of the reasons for his improved statistics according to the midfielder. He is yet to score a goal or create one for Villa in four appearances, but he has an impressive 89% accuracy in passing.
"If you looked at the games, the areas I was playing in were a little bit deeper and under different systems. It probably didn't suit my game perfectly. I'm motivated to prove a few people wrong and hopefully that does increase my performances. All my best games for Manchester United and England have tended to be in a three - that's a system we play here so it suits me. I want to be more advanced in that three and hit both boxes," said Cleverley.